Photoshop!

Ok, I know this is not one of the tools or programmes we've been dealing with last year in ECO II, but this programme really helped me this year in my Teaching Practice
As I wrote in the previous post, my project was about creating comics with monsters as their characters. So, in order to teach the students what a comic is, I needed to show them some real comics. But there was a problem: it was very difficult to find on Internet some comics written in simple language so that they can understand them, and they also weren't appropriate for their age.
I had to taught them the Verb To Be, feelings, colours, and descriptive adjectives. After searching, and searching on the net, I gave up and decided to do it myself.
The problem now was HOW to make a comic. So, I asked for help to a really good friend, Santiago, and he came up with the idea of using Photoshop; I had heard about it, but I didn't have the slightest idea of how to use it. However, I could count on my friend's help, who was really good at it.

When we started working I discovered all that you can do with this programme: You can cut images without their background, and paste those images on a new one; you can change the characters' faces, for example we had a happy monster, and by erasing its smile and drawing it a new sad face, it was done!

Although it's really time-consuming, it's worthy.

Here is one of the comics we made. My students really liked it!!

I'm back!

Hi! I want to tell you that this year I'm doing my Teaching Practice. This term I'm doing it in a Primary School, its name is Pte. Beleno and I have a 7th Grade. There're 30 students!!!! 

Our practices are based on the Task-based Approach, and we have to plan a Didactic Unit based on the contents we are given by the English Teacher. In my case, I have to do a revision of the verb TO BE, and I have to teach the colours, feelings and adjectives.

My idea is to work with COMICS, so as to put all these contents on it. The comics are about Monsters, I mean, the monsters are the characters of the comic. In order to do this, I had to design some comics, and by designing I'm saying that I had to write the scripts and to MAKE the comic! So, I had to design some material.

In the next entry I will talk about Material Design and I will upload some images of it!

See you soon!

Integrating web 2.0 resources into EFL teaching and learning.

These last days, we learned in ECO II what web 2.0 resources are, and we also learned how to deal with them. It is amazing the amount of tools you can find on Internet.

When it comes to using these tools in the classroom, I mean, in EFL teaching and learning, I think it is really valuable. They can be very useful in helping you as teacher to motivate learners. For instance, there is a tool that I really liked, it is called Voki. With Voki you can create a character, give it different features, and put it a voice, so as to talk through it. I think this tool can give students the possibility to talk in English and to create different situations and subjects to talk about.  I'm working at a private institute in my town, and last week I had to prepare a listening for my younger tudents. I searched on the Internet and in different coursebooks, but I couldn't find one that really convinced me or that was appropriate for my students' level. So I got this great idea: VOKI! I wrote the scripts for the listening, and then I created the characters, they were a boy and a girl. First, I was not sure if it could be useful and easy for my students to understand or if it could seem not so real, but I was wrong; it sounded very real, and my students could understand it very well. Here you can see my Voki.

I recommended this tool to my colleagues, and the tried it, too, and they really liked it. So, now, when I can't find a good listening to use, I create it myself!

We also learn to use others tools, such as Wordle and Popplet (although the last one is a bit more difficult to use, at least for me).
Using Wordle allows you or your students to create 'word clouds' like the one above. This tool gives our students the possibility to practice vocabulary and spelling. They can also play some games, For instance, a 'Grammar Game' in which students have to put the words in order to create a sentence. 

Pooplet is also innovative and fun. By using Popplet students can create graphic organizers, timelines, and many other ways of organize and connect information. This tool could also be used to work with vocabulary, but it also allows you to write longer texts or descriptions, which I consider and advantage over Wordle.

Using these resources for teaching and learning is a way of bringing the outside world into the classroom. Nowadays, students are really involved in technology and it is a normal thing in their lives, so we cannot close our eyes to that reality and we should try to use them in order to improve our teaching.

PowerPoint vs. Prezi

Last week Vanesa and I worked on a new practical work for ECO. We had to design a lesson  in which we had to include a PowerPoint Presentation and a Prezi one.

It was a very interesting task but we had to think a lot in order to be creative and to plan a good lesson.

Anyway, we succeeded in doing it. 

We made both the PP Presentation and the Prezi. The former was easy to do since we were accustomed to use it, but Prezi was new and we had to learn how to do so. 

First, we spent a few minutes checking it out, but it turned out that it wasn't that difficult. Since Prezi works online, you have to register in order to use it. Once you have done it, you have to choose the templates for your presentation, and let me tell you that they are really nice and appealing to the eye. Then you write the title, and add the images, videos, music, texts you want. You can also change the framework of each template. When you finish your work, you just save it or share it, and it is done.

Using presentations could be very useful in your lessons for presenting new topics, reviewing some contents you have taught, and even for playing (you can create some games with PowerPoint), and it can also give a fresh air to some classroom routines, such us using the blackboard, the coursebook, or their notebooks.

I strongly recommend you to give it a try to these kinds of presentations, your students will like it and you will catch their attention more easily by using great images, songs, or videos. 

Click here and you see the PP Presentation we made.

A little bit of humour!

This joke epitomizes our reality nowadays.

Here is an anecdote: the other day, I was with my little neighbour and she asked me to use my computer. I said "Yes" and I thought that she would need my help, so I said "Come with me that I'll teach you how to use it". But this 5-years old girl told me: "No, Belén, I can do it myself. I know how to use a computer, it's very easy!" I couldn't believe she would be able to use it alone, but I let her try it. At the end, SHE taught me how to play!!! She was able to open web pages without any problems. 

If Prensky heard this conversation, he would say that my little neighbour is a  Digital Native, and I am a Digital Immigrant. He introduces these two concepts to make reference to the existing difference between young people and adults in this new Digital Age. 

Being a Digital Native means being able to "speak the digital language of computers, video games, and Internet." (Prensky, 2001). In other words, a Digital Native is a person who has grown up and lived all his life surrounded by technology. According to the author, these are the students nowadays; the ones that having all this knowledge and being multi-task get bored in the lesson with its old methods and contents.

On the other hand, the concept of Digital Immigrant refers to those people who know almost nothing about technology because they have lived in the previous age, before the Digital Technology Age took place. It is really difficult for these people to work with computers, Internet, videos, and the like.

Prensky says that teachers are Digital Immigrants, and here is where the problem appears. Teaching becomes a hard task when it is done the 'old way' with students that ask for new and up-to-date things. However, it is a matter of attitude. If you want to change your way of teaching, to make it modern and appealing to current students, you just have to study and investigate to find ways to do it. Prensky can help you; in this paper - which I have already mentioned and tagged in a previous post - you will see some methods really useful to start implementing technology in your classroom.

Little by little ♪

Hi there! It's time to reflect.
First of all, I must admit that it's really difficult for me to work with technology and all these new things.
Last week, we had to do a practical work for ECO II and in order to fulfil it we had to use different tools that were really new for me, such as Google.docs and pdf files. At the very beginning I felt really lost, but then, with my teacher's help and with the famous trial-and-error I learned how to manage them!
And let me tell you that Google.docs are a blessing!!! When I discovered this tool, I stopped using Microsoft Word.
Google.docs have many advantages, for instance, if you have to do a practical work in group, and you and your classmates live far away from each other, you can create a Google.doc, add your classmates, and start working online from your house. Besides, you also have a 'chat box' where you can discuss about your work with them, and then write what you have decided on the document.
Another benefit is that everything you do or write in the document is saved instantly, no matter what happens. In the town where I live, electricity always shuts off, and for this reason I've lost too many works, but that won't happen again! Now everything I have to write, I do it in a Google.doc, without being worried about losing what I'm doing.

Hey apple!

Welcome to my new blog! Here I will write and reflect about  Material Design and the implementation of ICT in the English classroom.

Here is an interesting video. I think it expresses how we feel about technology..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvyP-cwpHN8&feature=related

This video, called 'How will you teach me in the 21s century?', can be a virtual summary of what Prensky states in his paper. This author writes about the necessary implementation of technology in our classrooms.

As the video shows, children and teenagers are the future; and it is known that future means technology. Technology can be a scary word for those who are out of this new age and who are not acquainted with it, but not for the children and adolescent of this century. They have grown surrounded by everything related to technology, such as computers, mobile phones, video games, and other digital tools that play an important role in their lives.

This generation of students come into the classroom with all this knowledge on tech, which is, for some teacher - not all of them-, new and difficult to understand and learn. These differences keep a great distance between them and their teachers.

So, after reading Prensky and watching this video I came to the conclusion that we, as teachers, should build a bridge to reduce this distance. I know that you might see this as a difficult task, but if you read the author I mentioned, you will find some good ideas to change your approach to technology and to become the teacher our students need - A teacher of the 21st century.